Expert: Richard Taylor, AIA - 10/9/2006

Question
My husband and I live in Southrn California.  We have a smaller (1300 sq. ft.) house that was built in 1972.  We have a large backyard and we wanted to add a small family room off of the kitchen..about 20 feet out.  My husband was interested and thinking about also adding a basement under the addition and going out under the yard, but not under the current house as we don't currently have a basement.  He's excited by the fact of adding square footage plus the fact of using less  energy by spending more time in there during the summer months and using less a/c. We have several months of triple digits in the summer time.  Is it smart to add a basement off of a addition to an older home?

Answer
Rachel - thanks for your question!

I've been asked that many times and my answer always is - if you can afford it, do it, because you can't add it later.

The tricky part is how you connect the deeper basement to the existing (I assume slab-on-grade) foundation.  That has to be done in a certain way - so be sure you have an architect who understands the importance of this connection.

You'll also have to add a furnace/air conditioning system, since the existing one probably can't handle the new load, and since you won't easily be able to connect the old system into the new space.

Finally, a wood floor joist system will be higher out of the ground than a slab floor; you'll need to account for that.

If you have a crawl space then the HVAC and floor joists are less of a problem.

Basements are cheap space - do it if you can!

Hope this helps!

Richard Taylor, AIA
Richard Taylor Architects, LLC
www.rtastudio.com